Last night we were talking about spa towns, as you do. Baden-Baden came into the discussion. We decided that while we knew why New York, New York we didn't know why Baden-Baden. Since the equivalent to New York, New York would be Baden-Baden, Baden-Wurttemberg it doesn't appear to be for the same reason. Can anyone help?

It is like New York,New York. I searched for History Baden-Baden, and got this:"......In 1619 the Bohemians deposed their Catholic king from the House of Habsburg, and offered the crown to a Protestant prince, the Prince Elector Friedrich V of the Palatinate. Most of his councillors and several friendly princes advised him against accepting. But Friedrich opted for the Bohemian crown. With Elisabeth, his young English wife, he got into the coach and drove from Heidelberg to Prague. In November 1619, he was crowned there. Almost exactly a year later, in November 1620, he lost the battle of White Mountain by Prague to Tilly, the commander of the Catholic League. He fled clear through Germany to the Netherlands In the state of Baden-Württemberg were united the states of Baden, Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern, newly created after the end of the war in 1945. Based on the Referendum of 9 December 1951 ("Southwest State Referendum"), the new federal state of Baden-Württemberg was constituted on 25 April 1952...."

Yeah, WW, and they're like NY,NY. Baden-Baden seemed different as you still needed to put the State after it. But Dr Bill's right I think, back in history it was Baden in Baden state, but then Baden state was combined with others, but the town was left as Baden-Baden, but needed the new state name after it to make a full address.

Oh, dxb, I wasn't really offering anything other than some interesting geographical locations in which there is a duplication of sounds--a tangent at best, but one that seemed worth throwing into this particular pot. Couldn't find any other pot to throw those sounds into.

Perhaps the most famous is the central New South Wales city of Wagga Wagga. Pronounced wog-uh both times.

In the local aboriginal language 'wagga' is the name given to what Europeans call a crow (which, just to muddy the waters further, is actually a raven most times in Oz - it's all to do with the eye colour). Wagga Wagga simply means 'many crows'!! Perhaps this is the basis of double barreled place names elsewhere in the world. It's a simple enough rule.

Another NSW regional town is Goonoo Goonoo. For variation's sake this is pronounced 'gun-uh g-noo' NOT 'goo-noo goo-noo' - by the european populace anyway.

The famous (former) copper mining town of Burra (which is where the movie 'Breaker Morant' was filmed) is aksherly Burra Burra (pron buh-ruh buh-ruh).

With the exception of Goonoo Goonoo (and others I suspect), it is quite acceptable to only use one word in conversation when referring to these places - eg Wagga, Burra etc.

Yes, see what you mean. I looked up Seaton Carew, playground of the north-east coast; apparently it is on land once owned by the Carou family which sounds more French than British. There must be a story there somwhere.

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